The Long Patrol (Battlestar Galactica)

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Battlestar Galactica (1978) episode
“The Long Patrol”
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 8
Guest star(s)	Ted Gehring as Croad, Sean McClory as Assault 9, Cathy Paine as the voice of CORA, James Whitmore, Jr. as Robber
Writer(s)	Don Bellisario
Director	Chris Nyby, Jr.
Production no.
Original airdate	15 October 1978
Episode chronology
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"The Lost Warrior"	"Gun on Ice Planet Zero"
Episode chronology

The Long Patrol is an episode of the original Battlestar Galactica televison series.

[edit] Story

Lieutenant Starbuck volunteers to test a new prototype Viper with an advanced propulsion system. Though the new fighter has superior speed and maneuverability, it lacks laser generators due to the extra equipment. While putting the fighter through its paces (with the aid of CORA, the on-board computer) he encounters a much older fighter chasing a shuttle-like transport. Starbuck intervenes and distracts the fighter so that the shuttle can escape to a nearby asteroid. Starbuck lands there as well to investigate the shuttle and its pilot, and discovers that the pilot is hauling a large cargo of ambrosia, instead of the farm machinery parts he says he is. While Starbuck admires the age and quality of the ambrosia, the shuttle pilot strikes him from behind with a bottle, rendering him unconscious, and steals the new Viper.

Aboard the Galactica, Athena starts picking up signals from Starbuck's Viper, but they are in an unrecognizable code and unscrambled, and being aimed back at the Colonies. Commander Adama, fearing these signals would alert the Cylons to their position, orders Captain Apollo and Lieutenant Boomer to launch, intercept, and destroy the prototype Viper.

Starbuck regains consciousness and, seeing his own ship gone, takes off in the ancient shuttlecraft. Upon reaching orbit, he is attacked by the same fighter he drove off, while its pilot chastises him for attempting to flee, calling him "Robber". Starbuck eventually convinces the fighter pilot that he is not Robber, and the fighter orders him to take the shuttle to another nearby asteroid settlement, which turns out to be a Colonial penal institution. The guards there inspect his shuttle, and, despite his pleas of innocence after losing his fighter, jail Starbuck as a bootlegger when they find his ship full of ambrosia.

Meanwhile, Athena informs Cassiopeia of Starbuck's likely fatal situation. As Cassiopeia turns to leave and glances at Athena's station, she says she recognizes the unfamiliar code as an Arien merchant code, asking for co-ordinates back to the Colonies. Adama informs Apollo and Boomer, who narrowly avoid destroying Starbuck's Viper as a result. Instead, they track it to another asteroid, and begin searching for the pilot amongst abandoned buildings. Just as the renegade pilot is about to shoot Apollo with Starbuck's own laser, Boomer announces he has found a woman and a young girl in one of the buildings. The mysterious pilot immediately surrenders, begging Apollo not to hurt his wife and child.